What's your favorite thing about the US?
#438
I have a comma problem
Joined: Feb 2009
Location: Fox Lake, IL (from Carrickfergus NI)
Posts: 49,598
Re: What's your favorite thing about the US?
Bunch of lazy f-ers
#439
Banned
Joined: Feb 2012
Location: Purgatory (PU, USA)
Posts: 860
Re: What's your favorite thing about the US?
Cruise control....for when I feel like falling asleep at the wheel.
#441
I have a comma problem
Joined: Feb 2009
Location: Fox Lake, IL (from Carrickfergus NI)
Posts: 49,598
#442
Just Joined
Joined: Apr 2012
Posts: 17
Re: What's your favorite thing about the US?
I'm going to say my wife, in case she reads this. Also the weather, and the natives liking my British accent.
#443
Re: What's your favorite thing about the US?
So what's to love stateside, well obviously the wife. I love the wide open spaces of NC & the breathtaking scenery. Work is fairly relaxed most of the time, help's having a great boss for the first time in along while after working for a couple of twats in my last few jobs back in the UK. Nice having people love the ole east end accent. Helpful leaving in an area where there is a large interest in football as we have only lived here 5 months & we have been coaching a kids team since month 2 & most seem to have a keen interest in learning more. A wide variety of new friends ranging from a Pasteur originally from Maryland & a fellow West Ham fan who grew up in the exact same part of East London that I did. Love the weather even if winter did totally miss us last year. And lastly some great trails for mountain biking!
#444
Heading for Poppyland
Joined: Jul 2007
Location: North Norfolk and northern New York State
Posts: 14,532
Re: What's your favorite thing about the US?
Little Debbie Snack Cakes.
#446
Re: What's your favorite thing about the US?
I-15 prior to the mountains is canted westward because of the strong winds and road quality is not the best, speed limit should not be your major concern, especially going over the Monida Pass for example.
In southern Utah the speed limit on I-15 is 80mph, I think there's a stretch of freeway in western Texas where it's 85mph.
Frankly my concern is the other direction, there are places where the speed limit is too high, I can remember roads in West Virginia where the speed limit was clearly too high and they'd put the speed limit sign right before a sharp bend or not long before a traffic light, etc.
#447
I have a comma problem
Joined: Feb 2009
Location: Fox Lake, IL (from Carrickfergus NI)
Posts: 49,598
Re: What's your favorite thing about the US?
Montana has a 75mph speed limit (as do most western States), the no speed limit thing was abolished years ago. I've gotten a ticket in Montana, basically it is a bail notice and you have to appear in court in Helena on the date on the ticket otherwise you forfeit the bail fee, which is $20. The trooper took cash.
I-15 prior to the mountains is canted westward because of the strong winds and road quality is not the best, speed limit should not be your major concern, especially going over the Monida Pass for example.
In southern Utah the speed limit on I-15 is 80mph, I think there's a stretch of freeway in western Texas where it's 85mph.
Frankly my concern is the other direction, there are places where the speed limit is too high, I can remember roads in West Virginia where the speed limit was clearly too high and they'd put the speed limit sign right before a sharp bend or not long before a traffic light, etc.
I-15 prior to the mountains is canted westward because of the strong winds and road quality is not the best, speed limit should not be your major concern, especially going over the Monida Pass for example.
In southern Utah the speed limit on I-15 is 80mph, I think there's a stretch of freeway in western Texas where it's 85mph.
Frankly my concern is the other direction, there are places where the speed limit is too high, I can remember roads in West Virginia where the speed limit was clearly too high and they'd put the speed limit sign right before a sharp bend or not long before a traffic light, etc.
I've never encountered a speed limit that is too high but we haven't the kind of terrain in Illinois that would ever lead to that really.
It's only on back roads or non-surface roads I'd like them to be closer to the UK limits of 60/70. Inside towns and off the back roads, I stick to posted limits +/- 5mph if there are no houses or children around.
#448
Re: What's your favorite thing about the US?
British healthcare is inferior. Period.
How many horror stories do you want me to relay about my UK-based family who were either denied treatment (too old), weren't given simple medications (such as diuretics), could not get regular follow-up appointments, or had to wait ages for hip replacements, etc.
The American system is more expensive - but the quality of care here is second-to-none.
How many horror stories do you want me to relay about my UK-based family who were either denied treatment (too old), weren't given simple medications (such as diuretics), could not get regular follow-up appointments, or had to wait ages for hip replacements, etc.
The American system is more expensive - but the quality of care here is second-to-none.
I am a very unhealthy person and have been in hospital literally more times than I can recall, including in various US states, the UK, Canada and various European countries.
The worst place was Florida, they seemed to assume that because I'm white I had health insurance, but I hadn't so the bill came to me rather than the insurance company and when I got it, basically every procedure in the ER that day was listed on the bill, which was clear fraud and after I threatened to go to the police all I had to pay for was the ambulance ($1,500).
I've had problems with the NHS, but they pale into insignificance to dealing with any problems I've had in the US. For example one of my prescriptions costs $30 over-the-counter in Canada (i.e. without a drug plan), in the US the cheapest I've found it is $125 (and that was a struggle, usually it's around $150+) and with a pre-existing condition only the PCIP would cover me (Obama's socialist plan), and the max coverage on that plan is 50% of drug costs. And that is something I use a lot of.
Trust me I've had some shitty healthcare, I remember in Wales once I was dumped on a bench in the back of an ambulance and woke up in some tiny hospital. Or one time I was in an NHS hospital that was truly filthy.
But on the other hand the GP I had in Florida was featured on Penn & Teller's Bullshit for inventing the condition of "adrenal stress".
I went into a clinic in Phoenix not long ago and because I only had travel insurance they quoted me $250 to have my ear syringed, FFS.
If you want to say I'd rather have quality and be bankrupt, quality varies from place to place in the US, I had excellent care in California for example, okay care in Georgia, but Florida was really bad and this is in a State with a massive healthcare industry.
Talk to people on Medicare who can't get a family doctor in various rural areas of the US and see if they think US healthcare is the best in the world.
#449
Re: What's your favorite thing about the US?
I was on a sharp downhill slope going into Butte and I was pretty much standing on the brake because of the gradient. Anyway behind said mountain was a State Trooper who clocked me at 85mph.